"He walked into hospital at 5.30pm and he was gone at 6.20pm," she said.

"I was talking to him two hours before...I was expecting him to walk through my front door.

"He died doing what he loved…he will be sadly missed."

Ms Sloansaid the coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus), or common taipan is a species of large, highly venomous snake of the family Elapidae. It is native to the coastal regions of northern and eastern Australia and the island of New Guinea.